Meetings of representatives of the International Network of House Museums

On May 25, 2023, members of the Coordination and Program Team of the International Network of Home Museums met with representatives of Polish, Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian and Hungarian organizations. This group also included Maria Marcinowska, the coordinator of the project "Małopolskie Domowe Muzea", which is part of the strategy of the Małopolskie Voivodeship in the field of "Home Museums. Revival of identity in local communities of Małopolska”. Activities to date were summarized, new candidates from Małopolska who expressed their willingness to join the Network were presented, and plans for further activities were presented. There was also an opportunity to present the cooperation of the District Museum in Nowy Sącz with Slovak institutions and the "Amici Hungariae" Association based in Stary Sącz.

On May 26, 2023, the 16th International Forum of Home Museums was held, organized this year together with the symposium entitled "Cultural borderlands in Central and Eastern Europe and guardians of memory". The title of the symposium refers to last year's 15th MFMD, dedicated to Kresy and borderland collections. The topic concerned the issue of national identity and national sentiments and turned out to be so compelling that it was decided to continue talking about cultural diversity in the borderlands, taking into account the problems of private collections and museums. The arrivals were welcomed by: Sławomir Czop, MA, deputy director of the District Museum in Nowy Sącz, and Anna Palkaj, MA from the Department of Culture and National Heritage at the Marshal's Office of the Małopolska Region in Krakow, who read out a letter addressed to the participants.
As part of the symposium, the first speakers were: prof. Irena Korbelářová and prof. Rudolf Žáček, Czech professors from Opava, who drew attention to the role of food as a guardian of memory in border areas. David Durczok, MA, representative of the Museum of Cieszyn Silesia in Český Těšín spoke about international partnership cooperation. In turn, Prof. Oleh Beley, professor at the University of Wrocław, recalled the eastern borderlands of Ukraine and talked about the formation of the Ukrainian national identity, taking into account language issues and population relations on the Russian-Ukrainian border. Then, the multiculturalism of the Ukrainian-Polish borderland was discussed by academics from Lviv: prof. Dr. Wołodymyr Dalik and prof. Dr. Mikoła Ondriechivsky, recalling the role of Dunajów. After this speech, Prof. Andrzej Małkiewicz, proposing efforts to expand the role of the Dunajów River as a guardian that could become a symbolic place of reconciliation between the Polish and Ukrainian nations. At the end, Miroslav Števík from Spišská Nová Ves presented the Ruthenian settlement in Slovakia.

In the second, workshop part of the meeting, methodological and organizational issues of private collections were discussed. The Association of Polish Private Museologists was presented by its president, Paweł Zaniewski, MA. The presence of private museums on the Internet was discussed by Dr. Agnieszka Szostak from the Jagiellonian University, and the above-mentioned pair of Czech professors from Opava proposed a shortened museum record for the use of home museums. The accounts of collectors, museologists and regionalists were presented by the Warsaw collector, Ryszard Kruk, MA, and Bożena Dołęgowska-Wysocka, MA, presented the 19th-century magazine "Home Museum" and proposed a logo for the International Network of Home Museums. All presentations were accompanied by a lively discussion.

On May 27, 2023, field workshops were held - a presentation of museums in Lesser Poland based on private collections. Visited the Natural History Museum. Krystyna and Włodzimierz Tomków in Ciężkowice, which is currently supervised by the local Cultural Center. In Bobowa, the exhibition at the Landau House, created by Józef Gucwa, was viewed and the Jewish cemetery, the guardian of the once significant culture, was visited. In the Beekeeping Museum Bogdan Szymusik in Stróże, owned by Anna and Janusz Kasztelewicz, workshop participants got to know their collection and methods of activity. During the mini conference organized there, one more museum, recently opened in Nowy Sącz, was presented - the Museum of Dwarfs. Aleksandra Kędzierska, the daughter of the collector Mariusz Kędzierski, told about this "dwarf" museum. The proceedings were summed up by: Maria Marcinowska, MA, representative of the District Museum in Nowy Sącz, and Ryszard Gładkiewicz, PhD, from the University of Wrocław, president of the Polish-Czech Scientific Society.

The project was implemented from the budget of the Małopolskie Voivodeship.


Prepared by Maria Marcinowska